DURHAM, N.C.—Apparently, the end of Ryan Kelly’s absence from the Duke lineup is near.

Steve Wiseman, the Duke beat reporter for The Herald-Sun, reports that the versatile 6-11 senior who has been sidelined a month with a foot injury will play Saturday night against Miami. Game time is set for 6 p.m. ET (ESPN).

Kelly hasn’t played since Jan. 8, and Duke is 9-4 in his absence. He was on crutches for most of his absence but was in uniform and went through pregame warm-ups Thursday at Virginia.

Kelly’s importance to the Blue Devils can’t be understated.

He has the size and strength—and, maybe most important, the know-how—to battle with opposing big men in the paint, and he has the versatility to step out on the perimeter and knock down 3-pointers. Without Kelly, the Duke offense has sputtered at times, as the paint clogged up, eliminating room for star center Mason Plumlee to operate and closing lanes for Quinn Cook at the other guards to penetrate, a staple of the Duke attack.

With Kelly, the Blue Devils were 15-0 with big nonconference victories against Louisville, VCU, Ohio State, Minnesota, Kentucky and Temple. They had all but wrapped up a No. 1 seed by early January and looked like a favorite to win the national championship.

Without him, they lost two of their first three games. And even though the Blue Devils won eight of 10 games after that, they didn’t exactly look like national championship contenders. They learned to survive Kelly’s absence—Amile Jefferson and Josh Hairston adequately filled in Kelly’s minutes at power forward, and other players picked up the scoring load—but they weren’t thriving.

There was the loss at Maryland and the narrow escapes at Wake Forest and Boston College and then Thursday night’s loss at Virginia.